EUPTEEIS AQUILINA. 33 



two-and-a-half in diameter. These balls are thoroughly dried, 

 and carried about the neighbourhood where they are made, for 

 sale in the markets ; and they are also frequently kept by shop- 

 keepers, to supply their customers. The price of these balls 

 varies, in different seasons, from Sd. to 8d. per dozen. They 

 are very much prized, by some housewives, for their utility in 

 the wash-house, in economizing the use of soap. When about 

 to be used they are put into the fire, and when heated to a red 

 heat, are taken out and thrown into a tub of water : the water, 

 in the course of an hour or so, becomes a strong ley, and is 

 then fit for use." Mr. Hardy also says, that " in some parts of 

 Berwickshire the ashes were once formed into a kind of pot- 

 ash, and, with an admixture of tallow, into a home-made soap," 

 (see Terra Lindisf. p. 252). 



As a litter for horses, " fern " is in great request in many 

 parts of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. While wandering 

 among the mountains of Wales, I have continually met with 

 sleighs, drawn by a ragged pony, and laden with Pteris by an 

 industrious Welshwoman : when thus collected, it is not only 

 used for litter, but is also chopped up when dry, and mixed 

 with straw or hay, and given in winter to the little horses and 

 mules kept for working on the tram-roads. In Scotland, par- 

 ticularly in the western Highlands, I often noticed it in use as 

 a thatch for cottages ; and Lightfoot remarks, — •" In Glen Elg, 

 in Inverness-shire, and other places, we observed that the peo- 

 ple thatched their houses with the stalks of this fern, and fas- 

 tened them down with ropes made either of birch-bark or heath ; 

 sometimes they used the whole plant for the same purpose, but 

 that does not make so durable a covering." — Flor. Scot. ii. 659. 

 It Avould appear that formerly it was in common use in Eng- 

 land, for the same purpose ; for by a statute for regulating the 

 price of labour in England, dated 1349, being the 23rd of Ed- 

 ward III., we find it enacted, that every tyler or coverer with 

 straw or fern shall receive Sd. per day, and their servants or 

 knaves 2d. per day, and their boys l^d. per day. 



Lightfoot goes on to say that swine are fond of the roots if 

 boiled in their wash ; and Mr. Edwin Lees has recorded in the 

 ' Phytologist ' (263), that in the Forest of Dean he saw some 

 girls carrying a quantity of recently cut Pteris aquilina or farn, 

 which they retailed at 2d. per bushel. On inquiring the use 



